Monday, March 22, 2010

If you didn't know that Cave Story Wii came out today, well, you should be ashamed of yourself. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It's in english and costs 1,200 Wii points ($12). Before I go on, this is an article for people who played the original Cave Story already. I love Cave Story, and I couldn't possibly recomend it enough, but this is not a review of the game for newcomers. This article is only about the changes to the original in this new version. Grab your Polar Star, and let's get started.

The new version includes new graphics and sound which subtract from the charm of the original, but are not entirely bad. It's nice to see old characters in a bit more detail, but the new music is, in my humble opinion, well, not so great. In fact, it's downright bad, so I've switched back to original music, though there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about the new sound effects.

Nicalis (the company that ported/remade the game) has been bragging for months about the new graphics and music, and how you'll not only be able to toggle between old and new, but be able to toggle each individual track. Well, that turned out to be... Not true. Not only can you not toggle the individual tracks, but when I switch the game over to original graphics, nothing happens and I'm stuck on new. Well, whatever.

The game has been entirely re-translated, which means several things. First, Balrog no longer says "Huzzah".

Ever.

He doesn't even have a catch phrase anymore. He just says variations of "Oh yeah!" which is heartbreaking. Second, Grasstown is now called "Bushland", which is also somewhat heartbreaking to me. Finally, the Bubbler is now called "Bubbline" which doesn't make any sense to me since the weapon has nothing to do with lines. The thing that bothers me most though is the overall mediocrity of this "official" translation. There are badly formed sentences, typos, and phrases that don't quite fit the current situation (such as Sue's "Meh." upon hearing egg 00 requires a password). For another example, try the second Balrog fight, in Bushland. Instead of the clever "I'm here to rip you apart. Doctor's orders!" he now says "I'm gonna beat you for real this time!"

The game has three "new" modes which are unlocked from the moment you load the main menu. There's Sanctuary Time Attack, which allows you to choose any combination of weapons (other than the missile launcher for some reason) and start playing through hell (which is now called the "Bloodied Sanctuary" or something along those lines). This bothered me because it's handing the secret area and every secret gun to a total beginner before they get to discover anything for themselves. In fact, this mode doesn't see to have that much of a purpose at all.
Next, there's a mode that allows you to fight every boss in succession. This is surprisingly captivating for some reason.
Finally, there is a mode that allows you to play through the main story as Curly Brace, which would be super cool if they had made the dialogue slightly more interesting. Curly is not a silent protagonist, and will say things like "I sure did!" when Balrog asks you if you knew Misery kidnapped the wrong mimiga. Other characters will also refer to you as "young lady". When you get to the Sand Zone, the protagonist will take Curly's place in the story and challenge you to a battle, though he will remain silent, and Curly will do all the talking. This makes the following conversation extremely awkward, and when Curly asks the protagonist if he's on the side of the mimigas, you are given a Yes/No prompt, which makes no sense whatsoever. Most importantly, yes, you can still find Curly's underwear, which is referred to as "your panties".

The biggest difference of all for me though was simply the change in controllers. I find the game much more difficult to control on the Wii since I'm so used to PC controls, and tricky Sanctuary jumps I can make on a computer are impossible for me on the Wii. Here's hoping I grasp them better by the time I get there.

Cave Story Wii isn't quite as great as we've all been hoping for and expecting, but it's still the same good old Cave Story. Pixel's been offering his masterpiece for free and continues to do so today, so it's not unreasonable to give the guy a few bucks for his efforts. Now, I tip my red cap to you and offer a final huzzah before signing off.

8 comments:

It's a little lame to be upset at the translation. I know people are going to gripe about it... but in the end you what we had all been playing before was a fan translation.

Not what Pixel felt should be conveyed. The real sense I get is that you, like others out there, are just hung up on the Cave Story you played for the first time. It would be interesting to see the impression that someone who played it in it`s original Japanese would`ve gotten.

To me it`s so trivial to be hung up on things like Huzzah and Grassland. Bushland and Grassland are literally the same basic idea. All it is, is people are just attached to to their original experience.

Thank you!! I was so angry at that game, felt like I threw 12$ away when I bought that game. I don't like the music, it takes away from the original music, and the translation I thought was, as you said, heartbreaking. NO HUZZAH?!?Also, is it just me or did the speed of everything increase?I don't like the controls, they are not very well laid out. A should be jump and B should be shoot IMO, (like every SNES Mario game).

I also found the music to not loop correctly, found many bugs, in the boss section some weapon energy pellets don't blow at all.

So I proceeded to check the Internet and expected to find lots of bad reviews, just to find that everyone else thought it was good! Well, I am glad that I am not the only purist disappointed... ah well.

Made me think... Pixel took 6 years to release this game to fix out every little problem... I think Nicalis should have honored this dedication by taking the extra time to sort everything out... very sad, I thought this game would be awesome :(

As a dedicated fan of the original, i completely agree with everything you've said about this game on this post.The new music sucked, and there were even breaks in what's supposed to be a simple loop.I dont find them complains like that other faggot guest did, because in all honesty the original cave story is perfection and its a risky thing remaking something like that and expecting it to be just as perfect.Thats a big reason why some diehard ffvii fans dont want to see it remade either.The greatest thing that has come out of this project is the publicity that nicalis finally brought to pixel and his creation.I have big hopes for the new 3ds remake and i hope it will be a little more polished now that it is a retail game.HUZZAH!